tjAN. 8, iSpe. 
fish was knocked into the canoe as it came forward, and 
then before I realized what had happened a great tarpon 
and a boy of some fifteen years were floundering around 
in the bottom of the canoe, and it seemed a question for 
a moment whether the fish would kill the boy in its strug- 
gles or smash the canoe to pieces; but the next minute the 
men were punching it in the gills with their long poles, 
and presently it was dead. The boy had scrambled up 
out of the way and now sat on the side of the canoe for 
several minutes, staring at the fish anu looking like a 
frightened monke}^ 
The men did not seem very much surprised, and as 
they began pushing the canoe along the captain told me 
that it was quite a common thing for a tarpon to jump 
at a canoe, and frequently they were caught in that way. 
Why did they do it? He didn't know they were ugly 
fish; perhaps it Avas to fight. 
There are quantities of tarpon all along the coast of 
Colombia, but I am told that thej'^ have never been known 
to take the hook. The people say that they have often 
tried to catch them in that way, but without results. 
They take them in strong nets, and at certain seasons of 
the year this fi.^h is one of the common articles of food 
among the people here. 
Our specimen measured about 7ft., and was an abun- 
dant supply for my men and quite a company of their 
friends. 
It was good eating, but I am sorry to say that I did 
not get much of it. I dined with some friends about two 
miles back from the coast, beyond the lagoons, where 
we had meat boiled in lard and such things, which in this 
country are considered much superior to plain fish. The 
men saved some of our prize for ine, and it was good, 
though I was too much burdened with grease to think of 
eating very much. Francls C. Nicholas. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
How do Fish Rise to the Fly? 
When in Quebec last season Mr. Chambers showed 
me an article in some publication with the title, as I re- 
call it, 'Ts the Ouananiche a Fraud?" When I read it I 
thought i would comment on one part of the article, but 
it passed out of my mind, and I cannot now remember 
what publication the article was in even, much less what 
it said in detail. To the best of my recollection the article 
was dated at Quebec and signed by a physician. To-day 
I was reminded of the article and one of the charges 
brought against the ouananiche in it. The writer found 
fault with the fresh- water salmon because it would not 
rise to the fly when drawn on the surface of the water, 
and said the fish were never taken except the fly was sunk 
beneath the surface. To the best of my knowledge the 
sea salmon has never been considered a- fraud, even by 
implication, because it is necessary to sink the i\y just 
beneath the surface to lure him to the hook. 
But the intimation, if not the language, of the criticism 
condemned the ouananiche because it would not take 
the fly on the surface of the water like the trout. 
Now the question arises in my mind how many brook 
trout of 2lbs. or over in weight has the writer of the criti- 
cism, or any other man, for it is not intended as a per- 
sonal question, taken by casting and drawing a wet fly 
on the surface of the water without letting the fly sink 
beneath it? Furthermore, can any one cast three flies- — 
as this is the number generally used in ouananiche fish- 
ing — and keep them all on the surface of the water? 
Possibly I have not had experience enough in catching 
big trout, but such as I have had teaches me that trout of 
2lbs. and upward take the fly when it is sunk an inch or 
so beneath the surface of the water, and not when drawn 
on the surface. I heard it declared in Maine, at Rangeley 
Lake and at Parmachenee, that it was almost unknown to 
take a trout of above 2^1bs. when the fly was on the sur- 
face. As a matter of fact, I have fished in exactly the 
same manner for ouananiche and big speckled trout be- 
cause in no other way was I successful, and that was by 
drawing the flies beneath the surface, for that is the onlj' 
way as a rule that big trout or ouananiche would rise to 
my flies. Books will tell you, possibly with a diagram, 
to mount your cast with drop flies of unequal length, the 
one nearest the hand longer than the next, so the two 
with the stretcher will trip gently or slide gracefully 
over the surface of the water, but, honestly, I have never 
seen the flies do it except in the diagrams. What I would 
like to get at are the facts; has any one taken any number 
of big brook trout by drawing a wet fly on the surface of 
the water? 
Casting a single fly, such as is used when fishing for 
big trout, I doubt if it can be kept entirely on the surface 
of the water when it is cast from 35 to 50ft. away from the 
caster, but if it is really done and big trout take it in that 
way, it should be known. I caught more than a score 
o"f trout this year weighing from 2 to 61bs. each, but not 
one of them took the fly on the surface of the water, and 
the most of these required the best fishing that was in me 
to entice them to the hook; but if the system or practice 
is wrong, or any other is better, I am not the only one 
who would be glad to know it. 
Frogs. 
Mr. John Wilkin, of Middletown, N. Y., wrote me 
some time in the summer, and I put the letter so carefully 
away that I have only this evening found it. There is 
considerable information in the letter, but I will only re- 
fer here to one item. He says: "Are frogs cannibalis- 
tic? Yes, and I will tell you why I know. My angling 
friend and companion Louis Roth was out yesterday 
looking-for bait for black bass, and incidentally looking 
for frogs for supper. He shot twenty-four nice fellows, 
and came home with twenty-five saddles. Inside of a 
big fellow weighing i^lbs. he found a frog large enough 
for count. I never heard of a similar case, but have 
seen a frog clean up a garter snake once in my time." 
Mr. Chamberlain, of the U. S, Fish Commission, who 
writes of the edible frogs of the United States, says: 
"They may occasionally capure disabled fish or small 
fish of sluggish habits found in the mud or on the bot- 
tom, and instances are recorded of their eating snakes, 
toads and young birds, biit-jtJseGts- ajid lower forms are 
their staple diet." 
While on the subject of frogs I would like to say that 
frogs are not hatched artificially, as fish are hatched. A 
long time ago a fish breeder said in effect that frogs 
could be so hatched, but he neglected to say how it 
was to be done; that is, he did not go into details of 
the hatching process. 
About four times a year, on an avferage, for ten or more 
years, I have been asked about hatching frogs, and as 
often as I am asked I say it is not practiced and never 
has been. As a rule, I believe, my correspondents credit 
me with being honest in my reply, but last summer, after 
I had given the stereotyped answer to a man, he called 
to see me and showed me a newspaper clipping al>out a 
fiog farm in California. To the best of my ability I 
told him what a frog farm' was, but I had a suspicion 
when he left that he thought I had sold him a gold 
brick, and that frogs were hatched after the manner of 
fish. There is no occasion to take the eggs from frogs 
by hand, for nearly all the eggs are fertilized by natural 
processes, so nothing would be gained by artificial im- 
pregnation, even if it could be done. What may be 
done by transplanting the eggs — ^the "frog spawn" that 
every country boy is familiar with, being the eggs in 
their albuminous coating — is another matter. Mr. Cham- 
berlain describes a frog farm in the Trent River Basin, 
Out., as follows: "It has been in successful opei-ation 
about twenty years, and annually yields a comparatively 
large product of frogs. The waters were stocked by 
means of mature mated frogs. No attempt is made to 
confine the frogs until near the time for shipment to 
market. They arc then taken alive at night, with the 
aid of a torchlight, and confined in small pens that can 
be drained when the frogs are desired for market. No 
food is given, as this is naturally present in sufficient 
amount for successfvtl growth. The species is the Eastern 
bullfrog. It begins to breed at the age of three years and 
reaches a marketable size in four years. During the 
years 1895 and 1896 this 'farm' yielded 5,ooolbs. of 
dressed frogs' legs and 7,000 living frogs for scientific 
purposes and for stocking other waters." The concluding 
paragraph of Mr. Chamberlain's article contains this 
statement, and if its publication here does not answer 
those who are still curious about hatcfiing frogs arti- 
ficially, I may have to get a rubber stamp with the words: 
"While at present it would perhaps be advisable to limit 
practical attempts at frog culture to stocking natural 
waters with paired breeders, experiment in artificial 
methods should not be abandoned." 
Moose and Salmon. 
Last evening T had occasion to open a bundle of 
letters, and one of them was marlced on the outside. 
"Moose in the Adirondacks ;" but I did not open it to 
see what its contents might be, for I was not hunting 
moose. This evening I read in the Mail and Express 
that Sam Dunnigan captured the last moose in the 
Adirondacks in 1859. The animal was captured alive 
and taken from the present Honnedaga Lake to Utica, 
where it was sold for $140. 
I returned to my letter marked "moose" and read it. 
The writer is Mr. James B. Blossom, of New York city, 
and the letter was written in January of this year. He 
says : 
"I wish to thank you for the very interesting communi- 
cations you have been sending to Forest and Stream 
for so many years. I did not know there was another so 
great and enthusiastic pisci-maniac as myself. I com- 
menced when I was ten years old. * * * My first symp- 
toms found me on Morrisania Brook (now a sewer tmder 
Brook avenue, in the Twenty-third Ward, New York) in 
1845, and the disease rapidly broke out and carried me to 
the Beaverkill, Willewemac and Dry Brook, tlien to the 
Adirondacks in 1853 (where I killed a moose in 1861), 
which I quitted in 1868, for Canada and salmon. I fished 
the Restigouche in 1868, Nepisguit, etc., and the Romaine 
in 1870 and 1871, finally leasing the Grand Cascapeelia 
for several years in the name of and with several 
friends. My heaviest salmon landed is 43lbs., but I have 
fought with some whales." 
I am of the impression that a moose was killed in 
the Adirondacks later than the year 1861, but I must 
leave the matter for some other person to settle, as 
moose hunting is not angling, although there seems to 
be an affinity between moose and salmon. 
Mr. Blossom went from moose to salmon, and my 
friend Mr. J. W. Burdick, the general passenger agent 
of the D. & H. R. R., did just the reverse. Together we 
fished the Restigouche for salmon in June, and when 
I returned from the Triton Club in September I asked 
for Mr. Burdick, as I wished to tell him about my 
trout fishing, and found he was in Noa a Scotia. One 
evening he came into the club in Albany, browned and 
cheerful, and greeted me: "You made a great mistake 
that you did not come back from Canada a few days 
before you did, as I watched for you for a week, hoping 
you would put in an appearance." "Why?" "To go 
to Nova Scotia with us for moose. I had a place for you, 
and did not fill it, hoping until the last moment that you 
would return." "I would not have exchanged my fishing 
at Moise Lake for all the moose in Nova Scotia; but did 
you get a moose?" "Yes, I killed a fine bull moose. 
I had to do it; it was a ground-hog case; having killed 
salmon, I had to kill a bull moose to be absolutely 
happy, for moose hunting and salmon fishing are in 
the same class, and having enjoyed one I just naturally 
had to take part in the other." A. N. Chenev. 
The Spoftsmen's Exposition. 
The Sportsmen's Exposition for 1898 will open its 
doors at 7 P. M., Thursday, Jan, 13, and will remain open 
until Saturday night, Jan. 22. This year's Exposition 
will be on a considerably larger scale than any of its 
predecessors, at least fifty firms having taken space who 
were not in the Garden in 1897. 
The special attractions outside of the exhibits are tour- 
naments for riflemen, fly-casters and bait-casters, bowlers 
and amateur billiard players. The bowling tournament 
and the billiard tournament are both new, and are sure 
to be exceedingly popular. Entries in all the above 
events are coming in rapidly. The billiard tournament, 
the result of which will decide the amateur champion- 
ship, is given under the auspices of the Amateur Athletic 
Union. 
The Song of the Kentucky Reel. 
DEDICATED TO FRED MATHEB. 
LfKE the delicate flush of the maiden, 
When the step of licr lover is hearJ, 
Comes a glorious blush to Aurora 
When she hears the first notes of the bird. 
As he sings on the tip of the hemlock-, 
With his resonant, musical peal; 
So jny pulse beat time to the measure 
Of the click of my Kentucky reel, 
fn the soft, pearly dawn of midsummer 
1 hie to the pool in the stream, 
Wliei-e the stately old elms are reflected, 
And the pond lilies float like a dream 
On its mirror-like surface in beauty. 
Ah! the quick inspiration I feel 
As I tliink of the bass 'neath the hlies' 
And my exquisite Kentucky reel. 
Now a brown hackle floats on my leader; 
Far and fast o'er the water it flics, 
Till it 'lights on the pool like a feather: 
"One moment — a swirl — 'tis a rise! 
He's missed it! Once more— he's a beauty — 
Such a prize for fisherman's creel 
Another good cast near that boulder, 
Then hark to my Kentucky reel." 
Ba6k ind forth sways the bamboo ela.stic, 
And the line lengthens out in the air 
Till the fly o'er the spot is just floating, 
Aiid I drop it widi delicate care; 
■ But ere yet it reaches the water, 
Far swifter than flight of the teal, 
Comes a leap and a snap— and I Have him^ 
Hear the message clicked oH on the reel. 
With a flash arid a dash like a rocket 
To the foot of the rapids he whirls; 
He is checked! Now he leaps from the water 
Tn a shower of sparkling pearls. 
All, he's off! — no, he's not! He is tugging 
y/ith. a genuine black bass's zeal, 
As my line whistles sweet obligates 
To the song of my Kentucky reel. 
,But the strain of the fly-rod is telling 
And beginning hi.s rushes to lame; 
Still the bronzeback's a thorougliTjred stayer; 
Like a hero, he's bound to die game, ■ 
Ha! a jump— he is clear of the river, 
And he shakes out the feather-clad steel; 
All hushed is my paean of triumph 
And my musical Kentucky reel, 
Zero. 
The Fish of Chawtatiqua Lake. 
Jamestown, N. Y., Dec. 30. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Chapter 705 of the laws of 1897, purporting to be a stat- 
ute to protect fish in Chautauqua Lake, provides as fol- 
lows: 
It shall be tmlawful for any person or persons to take fish of any 
kind, or to fish for or attempt to take any fish from the waters 
of Chautauqua Lake, from May 1 until June 15 of each year, except 
by the autliority of the State for the purposes of propagation. 
lilack bass, yellow bass, rock bass and muscallongc may be fished 
for and taken by angling only from June 15 until Dec. 1 in each 
year; provided, however, that muscallonge and bill fish may be 
fi.shed for and taken with fish-houses, decoy fish and spears through 
the ice, from Feb. 1 until Feb. 20 in each year. 
No per.son shall have upon the ice or waters of Chautauqua Lake 
at any time during the close season for fishing any fish-house, 
.spear, blanket or any device for concealing the fisherman, except 
as provided above, during the period from Feb. 1 until Feb: 20 of 
each year. 
It is then provided that all acts or parts of acts incon- 
.sistent with this act shall be repealed, so that this statute 
is the only one governing the taking of fish from Chau- 
tauqua Lake. The Chautauqua Fish and Game Association, 
backed by 4,000 petitioners, insist that this statute should 
be repealed, and that Chautauqua Lake should be gov- 
erned by the same laws which are in force in other parts 
of the State; that the muscallonge, in common with 
other game fishes, belong to the State, and that there is 
no possible reason why a few professional fishermen liv- 
ing on the margin of this lake should have privileges 
which are denied to other citizens of the State. They 
hold that as the statute now stands, there is absolutely 
no closed season except from May i to June 15, and that 
there is absolutely no prohibition upon the taking of 
muscallonge during any other part of the year, by what- 
ever contrivance the fishermen may see fit to employ. 
The general law of the State, in so far as it relates to 
Chautauqua Lake, is repealed, and applying the well- 
known rule of construction that statutes in derogation 
of natural rights, or common law rights, are to be strictly 
construed, they find no prohibition in this special law 
against spearing or taking muscallonge by any other 
methods, except from May i to June 15. The permission 
to take "black bass, yellow bass, rock bass and muscal- 
longe by angling, only from June 15 to Dec. 1," does 
not deny the rierht to do so at any other season of 
the year, and the same may be said of the permission 
to spear fish during twenty days in February. There is 
^1,0 declaration that these fish shall not be taken with 
spears or other devices at any other season of the year, 
except from May i to Jtme 15, and without such a 
declaration the statute is powerless to prevent such fish- 
ing. 
Rut if we concede that it is the purpose of the statute 
to have a closed season from Dec. 1 to May i in the year 
following, with the exception of the twenty days in 
February, the statute is still hostile to the declared policy 
of the State and to its best interests, and the exception 
which is made of Chautauqtia Lake cannot be justified 
ttpon any grounds of right or public policy. Its repeal 
is demanded, not to serve special interests, but to pre- 
serve to the people of this State their right in the fish 
of this lake, and to make it possible to propagate the 
muscallonge in sufficient nitmbers to supply all of the in- 
land waters of this State. This lake is the site of the 
State hatchery for the propagation of muscallonge; it is 
the only lake in which they are sufficiently well developed 
and numerous enough to supply the necessary spawn, 
and we deny the right of a few individuals wantonlj' to 
destroy these fish, as will be done if they are permitted 
